Google Powermeter Goes iGoogle, Lets You Track Others’ Power Usage

For quite awhile, Google has enabled the use of Google PowerMeter, an electricity usage monitoring tool that provides detailed electricity usage information, in many of their partner utilities, such as SDG&E in California and first:utility in the United Kingdom. Now, a breakdown of electricity usage in your residence can be viewed from the customizable convenience of a user’s iGoogle page.

PowerMeter allows users to view electricity information such as day-by-day kWh usage, comparisons of current usage to past usage, and other stats. “Everyone in your household can now activate Google PowerMeter on her own personalized iGoogle page so families and roommates can all track their energy consumption online together,” explains Google on its Google.org blog.

Image via Google

Keeping track of your own home’s electricity usage is one thing, but adding PowerMeter to iGoogle also allows users to compare their stats to a friend’s. Google Blog offers an example featuring two friends, each of whom lives in a similarly sized home in the same area. One friend’s electricity are considerably higher than the other’s. After each compared their electricity usage with the other, they determined that a malfunctioning air conditioner was the source of the higher bill. Google assures that all information sharing is completely optional.

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